A Traveler in Japan Before the Bullet Train

MIWA KAI

The travelogue is a favorite genre in Japan, both in literature
and painting, the mo.st widely known being that of the
Tokaido wood-block prints by Hiroshige (1797-18J8),
which depict the fifty-three stations ofthe Eastern Sea Route from
Edo, present-day Tokyo, to the former capital, Kyoto. A recent gift
by Mr. and Mrs. Sam Schaefler to the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, a Japanese folding book, hand-painted in color, depicts
scenes and places visited on such a journey covering three of the
four main islands of Japan, a considerably longer route extending
from Tokyo to the southwestern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku.
Although untitled and undated, the work was probably painted in
the latter part of the eighteenth century.

The book, when closed, measures 20'/4 x 11'A inches and
contains thirty-two full-spread illustrations composed to form one
continuous pictorial record. There is no accompanying text, which
is not unusual for this kind of work. However, towns, castles,
temples, rivers, islands, and other landmarks are identified by some
250 place names inserted at appropriate points throughout the
book. These "signposts" are helpful, not only as aids in following
the route traversed by the travelers, but as indications of their focus
of interest as expressed through emphases placed in portraying the
different sites visited. If opened in its entirety, the book would
measure some fifty-six feet, presenting an artistically rendered
panorama ofthe central and southwestern parts ofthe country; this
type of work, however, was designed to be viewed section by sec¬
tion in much the same manner as when one opens a handscroll
horizontally a couple of feet at a time.

Opposite: Travelers approaching the two-span bridge which crosses

the Seta River in an eighteenth century Japanese pictorial travelogue;

in the background rises Mt. Hiei where the Enryakuji Temple is

located in a thick grove of cypresses.

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